Riddell’s premiership dreams again came crashing down against Woodend-Hesket in the Riddell District Netball League grand final.
The two sides faced off in the decider for a third straight year after again being the best two teams all season.
The Hawks were looking to make it three in a row, while the Bombers were hoping to make it third time lucky.
For most of the first quarter there wasn’t anything between the two teams.
The Hawks capitalised late on some errors from the Bombers to lead by five goals at the first break.
From there, the Hawks were able to slowly extend the lead having fully taken control of the game.
The Bombers had some good defensive moments in the third quarter but weren’t able to make the most of them.
Woodend-Hesket blew out the margin on the way to a 57-39 win,
Bombers coach Emily Ktona said they didn’t fire on the day and threw too much ball away in the end.
“I feel like we had our moments, but Woodend was far too good,” she said. “We wanted to stay in contention, I feel like we did that for 12 of the 15 minutes of the first quarter.
“It then blew out to five and it kept going from there. Hats off to them they’re a really strong team, hard to get back on.”
Having already lost Fionnuala Mckeagney-Stubbs from the defensive end due to heading overseas, the Bombers were also without young goaler Sahara Ball who was in Canberra with the Australian under-19 squad.
Captain Ellen Close went off with a leg injury in the first quarter and didn’t return to the court.
It meant plenty of challenges for the Bombers attack end.
“It took Mez [Meredith Ball] a little while to get going,” Ktona said. “She hasn’t played for a while.
“Although she’s been on our bench, we’ve been utilising our team.
“Not having Sahara and Ellen on the court was a big loss for us and it didn’t flow as well as we would have liked.”
Defensively, Lauren Nolan and Georgia Shattock both had some good moments.
Ktona said Nolan was a really good match up for Rebecca Hicks after being moved back into goalkeeper.
Ktona said despite falling short again, she was still super proud of the group and what they had been able to achieve.
“Finishing second on the ladder, we only lost four games for the year,” she said. “We did a really good job, we did all we could.
“Just Woodend far too strong again. Maybe on the fourth time lucky, see how we go.”
The Bombers B-grade side had a comfortable win against Lancefield to make it back-to-back premierships.
After being six goals down at quarter time, the Bombers started to fire and ran away with a 55-40 win.
The Bombers went through the season undefeated.
Tara Murray
